Former Nintendo designer on the creation of Game & Watch, Game Boy, DS
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
This month’s issue of Retro Gamer features an interview with Satoru Okada, a former designer at Nintendo. Okada worked at the company for about 40 years, and was directly involved with the creation of various hardware.
Some excerpts from the interview are now available. Below, you can read excerpts from Okada about the Game & Watch, Game Boy, and DS. You might be surprised to learn that late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wasn’t initially interested in the idea for dual screens…
Paper Mario: Color Splash dev on paint inspiration, approach to combat, says team put in its full effort
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 22 Comments
Game Informer has now published its full interview with Paper Mario: Color Splash producer Kensuke Tanabe. Tanabe was asked about a variety of topics, including the inspiration behind repainting the world, whether the team ever considered ditching combat entirely, and the team’s sense is for what fans of the Paper Mario series would like to see in the future.
Continue on below for a roundup of Tanabe’s notable responses. Read the full interview on Game Informer here.
Reggie on Nintendo going with existing franchises vs. new IPs, Mario’s lasting appeal
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 13 Comments
Nintendo has a solid stable of franchises ranging from Mario to Zelda. From time to time though, they’ll introduce something completely new. During the Wii era for example, Nintendo offered up its own take on the shooter genre with Splatoon.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was interviewed during the TV documentary series
Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed. As part of that, he was asked how Nintendo decides between using one of its iconic characters or something completely new.
Reggie explained in response:
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
SEGA 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage devs on how the included games were chosen
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments
SEGA 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage shipped in Japan this week. To mark the game’s launch, Famitsu caught up with developers Yosuke Okunari and Kagasei Shimomura for an interview.
During the short discussion, Okunari and Shimomura explain how they settled on the games to include for the latest collection. The two also commented on the additions of Alien Syndrome and Columns as well as why the two bonus games were chosen. If that wasn’t enough, Shimomura left the door open to returning to SEGA 3D Classics in the future.
Continue on below for our full translation.
Game Freak talks Pokemon – Alola Forms and potential return, series’ future, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 59 Comments
Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda recently made some comments about Pokemon and Switch during an interview with Spanish site MeriStation which gained quite a bit of attention. However, we thought the entire interview might be worth sharing, as it’s interesting in its own right. And thankfully, Nintendo Everything reader Gumbatei was up to the task of translating the comments into English.
Masuda, along with Shigeru Ohmori, talked a fair amount about Pokemon Sun/Moon and the series in general. The two talked about Alola Forms and whether they’ll return, the future of the franchise, and more. A question was also asked about potential Pokemon Diamond/Pearl remakes, but the response is about what you’d expect.
Head past the break for the translated comments from Masuda and Ohmori.
More: interview, Junichi Masuda, Pokemon, Pokemon Moon, Pokemon Sun, Shigeru Ohmori, top
Former Rare dev on redesigning Donkey Kong, Star Fox Adventures changes, meeting Miyamoto, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
Kevin Bayliss left a huge mark on Rare during his nearly 20-year run at the studio. As a designer and art director, he contributed to Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Fox Adventures, and much more.
UK magazine GamesTM spoke with Bayliss (who is now at Playtonic) this month, and asked him plenty of interesting questions about his time at Rare. The topics we’re mainly interested in focus on Nintendo specifically. Bayliss commented on the process of redesigning Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Country, the initial changes that Star Fox Adventures went through, meeting Shigeru Miyamoto, and more.
We’ve included Bayliss’ comments below. You can pick up GamesTM now for the full interview.
More: interview, Kevin Bayliss, Rare, top
Miyamoto on what sticks out to him about Iwata
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
In an interview conducted by The New Yorker, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked about the piece of advise late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gave to him which he cherishes the most.
Miyamoto thought about the question for a bit, and then went on to mention that Iwata “had this unique ability to rally people around a vision.” Iwata was able “to take something, give it shape and then to motivate people.”
Miyamoto also spoke about how unique Iwata was from the standpoint of a programmer. Although such developers may tell designers why something would be impossible, Iwata was the opposite, and “would say he was going to figure out how to make it work.”
You can listen to Miyamoto’s full comments on Iwata below.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Miyamoto talks Zelda: A Link to the Past in classic interview – name, cut ideas, open-ended Zelda interest
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
Way back in 1992, Japanese magazine Famicon Tsuushin published an interview all about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past with Shigeru Miyamoto. Shmuplations has now gone to the trouble of translating it in full. There are notable topics here, such as how Nintendo approached the name, Miyamoto’s interest in making an open-ended Zelda (which he’s finally realizing with Breath of the Wild), and scrapped ideas due to hardware limitations.
We’ve posted a few of the excerpts below. For the full interview, head on over to Shmuplations.
Nintendo says competition has been its biggest challenge, but IPs and innovation give the company an edge
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 51 Comments
Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed is a new documentary series that explores the world of video games. The new show just went live this week, and one of the episodes features Nintendo quite a bit.
Two prominent Nintendo executives spoke about the topic of competition during their segments. At one point, Nintendo of America executive vice president of operations Don James was asked about the biggest challenge the company has had to deal with. That’s what led him to mention competition. While competition can be “fierce”, James believes that Nintendo franchises act like a “secret weapon”.
He noted:
More: Don James, interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
Paper Mario: Color Splash producer on lack of returning NPCs, new game would feature “a different system”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 47 Comments
Paper Mario’s first two games featured many original characters and party members with original abilities. However, since then, the series has been moving away from that. It is especially evident in Color Splash, as many of the characters encountered are Toads.
Game Informer spoke with Kensuke Tanabe, the Wii U title’s producer, in this month’s issue. The magazine started out by asking why old NPCs from the early Paper Mario games haven’t returned. Tanabe replied with the following:
